Decent upright hoover without spending £200 plus

[PogoBob]

Have had a Henry for the last 8 years which is finally starting to show it's age (something DH is very happy about as they hate each other!!).

He's asked if we can get an upright next - needs to deal with hard floors, stairs, carpet and cat hair. DD and I have long hair which we shred profusely and also have DS with a habit of leaving tiny lego everywhere.

Downstairs is semi open plan but does have a bit of an odd layout so need something easy to steer

Do we need to being spending £200 plus on something like a Shark to get something that won't die / clog / be unbearably heavy or is there anything reliable for a lower figure. We could spend the £200 but it would be a bit of a push at the moment so want to be sure it's worth it.

TIA

I have a Sebo ( but can't remember how much they are ) we've had it a good few years and it's been very good. It's not cordless and you have to buy bags ,it never clogs, is great for hair and cats !

I've just looked at the Sebo website, it's over £200 so perhaps not what your looking for.

Dyson small ball is great. Only a pound under your 200 limit though.

Thanks both, starting to sound like £200 - £250 may be the going rate for something decent

I've got a Black&Decker cordless one! Its great and was about £140?

I'd say Shark

We're happy with Shark - offers on their website (and Topcashback/Quidco) brings one with the anti-hair-wrap thingy in at less than £200.

Over just bought a shark duoclean pet form Argos at £199.99 to replace a hateful bastard of a Miele powerline blizzard cat & dog. I’m really loving the shark. It is so handy it feels like a cordless because the cord is so long it reaches all of my downstairs. The dirt tank is small, much smaller than Henry bags, which is a bit of a nuisance but I’ve gotten into the habit of emptying it every time I use it. The only other niggle I have is there is no adjustable power control so it’s at full power all the time and will eat your rugs I get Ds1 to stand on the end of them when I hoover. Other than that it’s a great hoover and I’m glad I bought it after much deliberation.

Oh and the anti hair wrap is amazing.

Vax steerable pet max, best £120 I've ever spent. Seriously. I also had a Henry but had fallen out of love with him.

Thanks all, there's another thread in chat looking for recommendations for around the £100 mark where everyone is suggesting a Henry - guess it's a Henry or £200.

DH would be doing the bulk of the hoovering so will spend the extra rather than torment him with another Henry!!

My favourite vacuum was a corded upright vax. I now have a cordless shark which is rubbish IMO, though my husband likes it.

This is the brilliant one I had - picked it up on clearance at the supermarket for about £60:

www.vax.co.uk/air-reach-upright-vacuum-cleaner-1

I too had found Sebo very good in the past.
The one model I had the experience of was BS36. The genius of it was that the handheld bit was super quick and easy to use, it didn't require bending down or any complicated taking apart and slotting back in like with some other vacuums.
Brand new they're typically more than £200 but perhaps you could also look into refurbished or second hand.
They're also often used in commercial settings because they're build to last and do the job well.

I can't recommend VAX, unless they've changed something dramatically from about 5 years ago. The thing needed a new belt once a year, the foot switch kept breaking off and it made a racket like a jumbo jet flying over your roof. But seeing as a PP had a good experience hopefully that's now a thing of the past.

Gtech
www.gtech.co.uk/cordless-vacuum-cleaners/uprights/airram-mk2.html
I have this and a Dyson and prefer this, the only downside is it doesn't have attatchments.

@Miaowse Is the vax better than the shark? I love my vax, can't believe how much you get for the money, bloody brilliant.

Completely agree about the value for money @userxx - mine was especially bargainous as it was reduced to clear at Sainsbury’s.

I’m not impressed with the Shark at all and much prefer the Vax. I found the Vax v easy to use, cleverly designed and amazingly powerful (plus as it is corded there is no risk it will run out of battery mid-room!). On the other hand my husband thinks the Vax build quality is rubbish and much prefers the Shark/the Miele we had previously.

Our Vax brush bars have recently stopped rotating so I’m not using it at present (without the brush bar it doesn’t pick up long hairs). It is around 3 years old I think and been used a lot. I think it had a long guarantee (6 or 7 years IIRC) so I want to dig out the receipt and see if it’s still covered. If it isn’t then I expect I’ll buy another one as I don’t think the Shark is good enough to be a main vacuum cleaner, though it is handy for a quick zip around.

@Miaowse Glad I went with the vax now, I was looking at a shark for £250ish. You've reminded me I need to register the guarantee, must dig it out. My old hoover had a bag so I couldn't see what was going in but judging by the amount of crap the vax picked up from the carpet I'm thinking not much!

I watched one of those spend money wisely shows on channel 4 and it had a part about hoovers where they did a blind test. The tesco own brand hoover won the test.

Following with interest here. I've personally had zero luck with Vax but their upright is under £100 compared to others in the same category. I am inching towards a shark, Argos has some very good prices on them at the moment. Light and good for stairs/following dog about the kitchen are my requirements 😂